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Anne Boleyn
1501/1507 Blickling Hall, Norolk (or) Hever Castle, Kent|died = 19 May 1536 Tower of London, London|residence = Whitehall Palace/Hampton Court Palace/Greenwich Palace Hever Castle (formerly) Bickling Hall, Norfolk (formerly)|spouse = Henry VIII ( 1533; annulled 1536)|father = Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire|mother = Lady Elizabeth Howard|siblings = Mary Boleyn (sister) George Boleyn (brother) Thomas Boleyn the younger (brother) Henry Boleyn (brother)|issue = Elizabeth I of England|title = Marquessate of Pembroke |signature = }}Anne Boleyn was the queen of England from 1533 to 1536 and was the second wife of King Henry VIII. She was the daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and Lady Elizabeth Howard. Her marriage to Henry, and her subsequent beheading made her an important icon in British history. She was the mother of Queen Elizabeth I and a cousin to Henry's fifth wife Katherine Howard. Anne caught Henry's attentions in early 1525, while still being married to his first wife Katherine of Aragon. Henry's desire for a son made him to get tired of Katherine as she was not able to produce a male heir. It soon became the one absorbing object of Henry's desires to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon so he would be free to marry Anne. Henry tried to seduce Anne but she refused to be his mistress but however in late 1532, Henry and Anne got secretly married and formally married on January 1533. Anne was crowned queen on June 1533. On September 1533, Anne gave birth to future queen Elizabeth I but her birth greatly disappointed her parents as they confidently expected a boy. However Henry professed to love Elizabeth and hoped a son would follow. Anne subsequently suffered three miscarriages and she fell from the King's favor. So Henry got tired of her and began a relationship with one of her ladies-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, who would be Henry's future third wife. In order to marry Jane Seymour, Henry had to find reasons to get rid of Anne. On April 1536, Henry had Anne investigated for high treason. On May 2, 1536 she was arrested and sent to Tower of London. On 15 May she was found guilty and sentenced to death for charges of adultery, incest with her brother, witchcraft and plotting to kill the king and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer declared Henry's marriage to Anne was null and void. On 17 May, five accused men (including her brother) who were allegedly thought committing adultery with Anne, were beheaded. Two days later on 19 May, Anne was also beheaded with a sword. Early years (1501-1522) Anne was born at Blickling Hall, Norfolk or possibly Hever Castle, Kent. However she spent her childhood days at Hever Castle. She was the youngest and second daughter of Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire who was a diplomat and one of King Henry VII's favorites and Lady Elizabeth Howard, who was the daughter of Thomas Howard, 2nd Duke of Norfolk, a prominent politician at King Henry VII'S court. Anne had an elder sister named Mary and a brother George. Anne had two more younger brothers who died young. Her exact birth date is unknown but occurs between 1501 and 1507, due to lack of parish records. But some say her birth year is about 1499, because of the style of her handwriting when she wrote a letter in French to her father in 1514. Like other wives of Henry VIII, she was the descendant of King Edward II but was of nobler birth than three of the wives, namely Jane Seymour, Katherine Howard, Katherine Parr. Anne's early education was typical for women of her class. In 1513, Anne was invited to join the schoolroom of Margaret of Austria who a frie and her four wards. Her academic education was limited to arithmetic, her family genealogy, grammar, history, reading, spelling, and writing. She developed domestic skills such as dancing, embroidery, good manners, household management, music, needlework, and singing. Anne learned to play games, such as cards, chess, and dice. She was also taught archery, falconry, horseback riding, and hunting. In Netherlands and France Anne's father continued his diplomatic career under Henry VIII. In Europe, Thomas Boleyn's charm won many admirers, including Margaret of Austria, daughter of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor. During this period, Margaret ruled the Netherlands on her nephew Charles's behalf and was so impressed with Boleyn that she offered his daughter Anne a place in her household. Ordinarily, a girl had to be twelve years old to have such an honour, but Anne may have been younger, as the Archduchess affectionately referred to her as "la petite Boulin" meaning "The little Boleyn". Anne made a good impression in the Netherlands with her manners and studiousness, Margaret reported that she was well spoken and pleasant for her young age, and told Sir Thomas Boleyn that his daughter was "so presentable and so pleasant, considering her youthful age, that I am more beholden to you for sending her to me, than you to me". Anne stayed with Margaret from spring 1513 until her father arranged for her to attend Henry VIII's sister Mary, who was about to marry Louis XII of France in October 1514. In France, Anne was a maid of honor to Queen Mary, and then to Mary's 15-year-old stepdaughter Queen Claude, with whom she stayed nearly seven years. In the Queen's household, she completed her study of French and developed interests in art, fashion, illuminated manuscripts, literature, music, poetry, and religious philosophy. She also acquired knowledge of French culture, dance, etiquette, literature, music, and poetry and came to gain experience in flirtation and the game of courtly love. At the court of Henry VIII (1522-1533) Anne was called back to England to marry her cousin James Butler to end the feud between the Boleyns and Butlers over Earldom of Ormond. However, since Thomas Boleyn was the eldest son of the eldest daughter of the Butler family, he had the strong acclaim to be the earl of Ormond. But this plan failed when Thomas Boleyn protested the Duke of Norfolk and the marriage plan was called off. Mary Boleyn, Anne Boleyn's older sister, had earlier been recalled from France in late 1519, ostensibly for her affairs with the French king and his courtiers. She married William Carey, a minor noble, in February 1520, at Greenwich, with Henry VIII in attendance; soon after, Mary Boleyn became the English King's mistress. Historians dispute Henry VIII's paternity of one or both of Mary Boleyn's children born during this marriage. Henry VIII: The King and His Court, by Alison Weir, questions the paternity of Henry Carey. Henry did not acknowledge either child, as he did his son Henry Fitzroy, his illegitimate son by Elizabeth Blount. Anne made her debut at the Château Vert (Green Castle) pageant in honour of the imperial ambassadors on 4 March 1522, playing "Perseverance" (one of the characters in the play). There she took part in an elaborate dance accompanying Henry's younger sister Mary, several other ladies of the court, and her sister. All wore gowns of white satin embroidered with gold thread. She quickly established herself as one of the most stylish and accomplished women at the court, and soon a number of young men were competing for her. During this time, Anne was courted by Henry Percy, son of the Earl of Northumberland, and entered into a secret betrothal with the young man. Thomas Wolsey's gentleman usher, George Cavendish, maintained the two had not been lovers. If Cavendish is to be believed, their relationship was celibate. The romance was broken off when Percy's father refused to support their engagement. Cardinal Wolsey refused the match for several conjectured reasons. According to Cavendish, Anne was sent from court to her family's countryside estates, but it is not known for how long. Upon her return to court, she again entered the service of Katherine of Aragon. Percy was married to Lady Mary Talbot, to whom he had been betrothed since adolescence. Prior to her marriage to Henry VIII, Anne had befriended Sir Thomas Wyatt, who was one of the greatest poets of the Tudor reign. In 1520, Wyatt married Elizabeth Cobham, who by many accounts, was not a wife of his choosing. Thus, in 1525, Wyatt charged his wife with adultery and separated from her; coincidentally, historians believe that it was also the year where his interest in Anne intensified. In 1532, Wyatt accompanied the royal couple to Calais in France. In 1526, Henry VIII became enamoured with Anne and began his pursuit. Anne was a skillful player at the game of courtly love, which was often played in the antechambers. This may have been how she caught the eye of Henry, who was also an experienced player. Some say that Anne resisted the King's attempts to seduce her, refusing to become his mistress, often leaving court for the seclusion of Hever Castle. But within a year, he proposed marriage to her, and she accepted. Both assumed an annulment could be obtained within a matter of months. There is no evidence to suggest that they engaged in a sexual relationship until very shortly before their marriage; Henry's love letters to Anne suggest that their love affair remained unconsummated for much of their seven-year courtship. Downfall and Execution (1536) On the funeral of Catherine of Aragon on 29 January 1536, Anne suffered her third and final miscarriage. The reason was the stress when Anne heard that the king got a serious injury in an jousting accident. The miscarried child seemed to be a "male child" and Eustace Chapuys noted that "she miscarried of her savior". Now Henry was firm in his thought that god will never give him any male children and Anne fell from his favor increasingly. There is another possibility that when Anne saw Jane Seymour sitting on Henry's lap when he was courting Jane and flew into rage and miscarried her child. However, from this point, Anne's downfall was swift. As Henry was growing older, he wanted a son to succeed him and carry on the Tudor dynasty by marrying another woman. In order to marry Jane, Henry had to find reasons to get rid of Anne. Henry had Anne to be investigated for high treason on April 1536. On 2 May, She was arrested and taken to Tower of London. 5 men were found guilty of committing adultery with the queen. They were: Mark Smeaton (The royal musician), Sir William Brereton, Sir Henry Norris, Sir Francis Weston and her brother George Boleyn. Henry also accused Anne of bewitching him into marrying her and plotting with the 5 men to kill him. Four of the accused men were tried in Westminster on 12 May 1536. Weston, Brereton, and Norris publicly maintained their innocence and only the tortured Smeaton supported the Crown by pleading guilty. Three days later, Anne and George Boleyn were tried separately in the Tower of London, before a jury of 27 peers. She was accused of adultery, incest, and high treason. By the Treason Act of Edward III, adultery on the part of a queen was a form of treason (because of the implications for the succession to the throne) for which the penalty was hanging, drawing and quartering for a man and burning alive for a woman, but the accusations, and especially that of incestuous adultery, were also designed to impugn her moral character. The other form of treason alleged against her was that of plotting the king's death, with her "lovers", so that she might later marry Henry Norris. Henry Percy, 6th Earl of Northumberland, sat on the jury that unanimously found Anne guilty. When the verdict was announced, he collapsed and had to be carried from the courtroom. He died childless eight months later and was succeeded by his nephew. On 14 May, Cranmer declared Anne's marriage to Henry null and void.